San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Activist blasts mayor for sharing mugshot
Brownsville community activist Rebekah Hinojosa heard banging on the front door. She thought it was a package delivery, but then she saw police. She cracked the door to speak with them, and the officers pushed inside her apartment.
Still in her pajamas, Hinojosa was handcuffed and escorted outside, she said. She spent 26 hours in jail. Then Brownsville Mayor Trey Mendez posted her mugshot on Facebook.
Her alleged crime? Painting “gentrified stop SpaceX” on the bottom of a controversial downtown mural that was paid for with funds from Elon Musk’s foundation.
“This is a targeted political attack and so it has nothing to do with graffiti in downtown Brownsville,” her attorney Mike Siegel said. “Why is the mayor using public resources to go after Rebekah Hinojosa? The mayor considers himself more loyal to Elon Musk than the people of Brownsville.”
Mendez said his concern was vandalism.
“I have spoken out against previous acts of vandalism to other iconic artwork by local artists and will remain consistent in doing so,” the mayor said.
The Brownsville Police Department did not respond to requests for comment. The mayor said he had asked that an investigation be conducted into the arrest.
Hinojosa is a vocal opponent of SpaceX, the rocket company that’s developing spacecraft prototypes along a beach outside of Brownsville. Musk founded the company in 2002 and, in more recent years, has chosen Boca Chica as the testbed for his Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket that are being designed to carry people to the moon, Mars and beyond.
The greater Brownsville community has a front-row seat to his fast-paced, iterative and explosive development. City officials and space enthusiasts praise the project’s economic development; others worry about its environmental and cultural ramifications.
Hinojosa works for the Sierra Club, a nonprofit environmental organization, and has been outspoken against SpaceX and how its development affects wildlife, beach access and nearby residents.
Mendez said on Facebook that city cameras captured the downtown
mural being vandalized. Hinojosa declined to answer questions about the graffiti allegations, and her attorney said they’d address these claims in the criminal justice system.
“We are confident that Rebekah will be vindicated,” Siegel said. “The facts of the allegations against her, those will be sorted out through the criminal process.”
Hinojosa wasn’t sure why police knocked on her door around 9 a.m. Feb. 16. She didn’t see a warrant as they rushed inside and held her arms behind her back. When she tried to grab shoes, Hinojosa said an officer threatened
to charge her with resisting arrest.
She was taken to jail, and Hinojosa said officers took away her prescription glasses.
“I have really terrible vision,” she said. “I can’t see anything. I can’t even read the badges of these cops.”
It was during questioning with a detective that Hinojosa learned her arrest was about the “BTX” mural. The graffiti has since been painted over.
Teddy Kelly, of Los Angeles, was paid $20,000 to paint the mural. The money came from funds the Musk Foundation provided to help revitalize downtown
Brownsville, according other media reports.
Hinojosa had heard community members gripe about the piece, saying it was money that could have benefited a local artist, and the mural doesn’t reflect the Rio Grande Valley’s culture. Instead, Hinojosa said, people in the community say it feels like a rebranding — an attempt to attract SpaceX employees and tourists.
“I’ve never heard anyone in Brownsville call this city BTX,” she said. ATX, however, is commonly used to described Austin.
Hinojosa returned to her jail cell after being questioned by the detective. She was held for about 26 hours and then released without having to post cash bond. She was charged with a Class B misdemeanor for graffiti.
Then her mugshot was shared on the mayor’s Facebook page.
Mendez’s first post, which was later edited, noted that Hinojosa had been quoted in several antiSpaceX articles. It also listed her job title.
In a statement, Mendez said he respects Hinojosa but cannot dismiss the seriousness of this act.
“I respect her prior work and her résumé as an activist,” Mendez said, “and I hope she continues to ask tough questions to corporate interests that may seek to exploit our community and its residents.”
Hinojosa called the mayor’s actions “abuses of power,” and she’s asking the city to dismiss her charge and investigate Mendez.
“I’ve been singled out and publicly attacked by the mayor of
to
Brownsville specifically because I speak out against SpaceX,” she said. “I’ve been feeling a lot of emotional distress.”
Siegel, the attorney who is representing Hinojosa pro bono, wants to know why she was treated like a violent criminal and who prompted this behavior. He said it’s not normal for four officers in two police vehicles to make a graffiti arrest.
Jennifer Carreon agreed. Carreon is director of the criminal justice project at Texas Appleseed, a public interest group that advocates for social justice reform.
She described the number of officers and show of force as “egregious.”
Mendez said: “If we see that any wrongful conduct occurred on the part of our police department, I will be the first to support the findings and recommendations resulting from that investigation.”
Texas law permits officers to “cite and release” people arrested for Class B misdemeanor graffiti charges. With cite and release, an individual would receive a citation and a notice to appear in court — not jail time.
But law enforcement agencies must establish this cite-and-release policy on a county and local level, and Carreon said Brownsville and Cameron County have not created such policies. Because they don’t have cite-and-release policies, an officer would have to arrest the person charged with graffiti and bring him or her to jail.
This can typically be done without force, she said, and there was no need for officers to enter Hinojosa’s home. They wouldn’t be looking for drugs or weapons, for instance, in a graffiti case.
“My guess is no judge is going to offer a warrant for search of premises or search of residence based on a graffiti charge,” she said. “They shouldn’t have stepped foot in her house. That is not a typical response.”
Hinojosa said she cares deeply about her community’s environment, people and downtown area. She told that to the detective who questioned her, and will continue spreading that message to others in the Rio Grande Valley.
“I will continue to protest the negative environmental impact of continuing space launches,” she said, “and I will continue to oppose the mayor’s efforts to sell Brownsville to Elon Musk."